Finding Freedom
by RiptideZ
Summary: Sgt. Daniel Recker and Tombstone celebrate Independence Day, an epilogue to the ending of Battlefield Four.


**Hey guys, this is a Battlefield Four ending one-shot, I will not update this story. I just thought the story ended too quickly. I enjoyed the campaign, I would have to say, I enjoyed it over Battlefield Three's, anyway. This is considered an epilogue using several parts from the ending and surrounding a probable Alternate Universe where it's an Irish ending with his survival however. Thanks for reading and please review.**

* * *

_Welcome to RiptideZ's "Finding Freedom," a non-profit fan-produced fiction product under the ownership of set penname: RiptideZ._

_DISCLAIMER:_

_All copyrighted items mentioned or used in this work belongs to their rightful owners at Electronic Arts, Dice, and other brands mentioned below or later under terms of Fair Use. The author only owns their own creations. This author is an adamant supporter of Constructive Criticism, please read and review, be mindful however, this author will delete your comment if it is considered of ill-intent or overstated such as being already stated more than a few times. If anything is wrong with the writing piece, contact RiptideZ through the reviews section, or Instant Messaging."_

* * *

**...**

**[Sgt. Daniel Recker – Tombstone Squad]**

**[United States Marine Corps – Force Recon]**

**[July 4****th****, 2020]**

**[New York City, New York – Shore Leave]**

**[16:32 – Military Standard]**

**…**

In the middle of the Suez Canal, at the center of Alexandria, Egypt, a titanic battle raged. Mighty warships shot upon each other. Smoke blacked out the stars of the shining night sky. Fire burned across earth, as if hell had seeped into the Middle Kingdom.

Between two of the majestic man-made behemoths of warships upon the water lane rode three people in a small-black and unnoticed speed boat.

They were the members of an elite group of soldiers, a squad of United States Marine Force Recon, one of the most effective combat units in the year 2020.

The leader, Sergeant Daniel Recker drove the small speed boat down the man-made river unnoticed by the Chinese destroyer.

Recker turned his head back to face his ship, his home, his center of power. The USS Valkyrie, a Wasp-class Amphibious Assault Ship measuring 253.4 meters in length was a monster of war. However, her assortment of advanced technology and powerful air-wing did little to stop the assault of the bearing enemy.

Recker turned away from the sight of the deathly ominous sight, already flames were beginning to appear on her body from rounds impacting her hull.

He remained silent and took little time to adjust the slight tearing of his eyes. He was caught off-guard at how close the group was to the warship and nearly fell over as an explosion rocked the motor.

The craft slowed to a halt alongside the Chinese warship.

Coming over to him, Huang "Hannah" Shuyi, a Chinese Secret Service Agent and good friend of Recker offer him her hand.

Grabbing it, he righted himself as she took the wheel and lined them up right along the metal of the enemy warship's hull.

Hannah had been assigned to his squad after they had rescued her and the Chinese leader, Jin Jie from being terminated in Shanghai. The military coup leader, Admiral Chang was likely waiting in the ship's control bridge.

The warship was strikingly similar to another American warship, an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship, just much bigger in size and its image made him want to puke yet he held himself composed.

Hannah stopped the vehicle and the sea spray flashed Recker across the body as he felt water soak through his combat harness.

Manning the 50 caliber machine turret was Staff Sergeant Kimble "Irish" Graves, his second-in-command and the most emotional of the group as seen by the multiple phrases of sailor language escaped his lips only minutes earlier.

Irish got off the turret as Hannah yelled, "We're in their blind spot! Get ready."

The boat came to a halt as the booming cannon continued to fire accurate shots at the Valkyrie, climbing up he noticed the trimaran shape and the tall angular bridge that floated on top.

If Intel was correct it was a Type 28 Guided Missile Destroyer, a prototype warship designed for multi-mission combat and prepared to combat with the superior American Zumwalt and Arliegh Burke class stealth destroyers.

Grabbing a pre-set charge for anti-armor demolitions, Irish planted the magnetic clamp and pressed the priming charge.

The screen flashed a bit, numbers calculated across the screen Recker couldn't make out yet the numbers were quickly replaced by a green marker.

Irish spoke, "Secure."

Starting to climb around the control house, Recker and Hannah joined Irish in front of the box of ordnance.

Inside were three sets of Swedish-built grapple guns, Recker looked toward the distant bridge above and nodded as the plane ran through his mind for the fourth time.

Hannah handed Recker one gun and another to Irish as she addressed him by his nickname, "Irish."

She grabbed her own after he took it.

Thinking along the probable same lines as Irish, she quickly added, "Don't worry, they're pretty secure."

"Yeah, right." Irish replied and Recker made the hand motion to cut off the half-ass remarks.

"They're made in Sweden." Hannah also added.

Obviously, everything from Sweden is top-of-the-line quality.

"Oh, I feel so much better."

Recker and Hannah ignored the comment and looked toward the bridge.

Recker pulled the trigger just as Hannah and Irish quickly followed.

Down the chord, Recker felt a vibration and next thing he knows he's shooting skyward.

Attacked to the hooks, the group was now above the combat. In the distance, the Valkyrie was a blazing inferno.

"Fortress, this is Tombstone three, we're in position. Ready to blow shit up. What's your status, over?" Irish asked across the channel.

On the radio, Captain Garrison or known as Fortress when on the communicator stated, "We're almost done for so send it to hell."

His voice was grave and in despair, the group needed to hurry.

"Hannah, hit the switch!" Irish yelled.

"Red! Something's wrong." She exclaimed. "There's no connection! Recker."

Frantically thinking, Recker fumbled around his harness for an answer in a panicked silence as the fire grew bigger and bigger with each passing second.

"Give it to me!" Irish called as she passed the detonator to him. "Shit. We got to go back down."

"Only one of us needs to go. Recker. Do you have another one of those C4 charges?" Hannah asked.

Recker quickly found one and gave her a shocked expression that was again connected with dead silence.

"Good. Give it to me."

Irish protested, "You are not risking your life, Hannah. I'm Irish, remember? The lucky one. Give it to me, Recker!"

"Recker, I risk my life for my country every day. Give me the charge." Hannah countered.

The flames of the Valkyrie continued to get larger.

"Your country needs you alive, Hannah. You are not going down, period. Come on, Recker."

Meanwhile, Recker was having an internal conflict. He could possibly lose his warship, now he could possibly lose a squad mate he had put his life on the line for dozens of times.

Without really thinking, he let his hand fly and the C4 magically fell into Irish's hands.

"When the detonator goes green, you push that button, Recker!"

"Wait…" Recker called weakly as Irish quickly undid his rope and fell down more than 50 feet.

He could not make out Irish in the inky, black waters below.

"Irish, dammit!" Hannah called down toward his general direction.

She grabbed her P90 PDW and started firing aimlessly downward.

Somewhere below, Irish contacted Recker and said, "It's set and ready to go. Come on Recker, press the button!"

"The blast will kill him!" Hannah yelled as she stopped firing.

"Wait, give me time…" Recker whispered still looking between the water below and the ship ablaze in the Canal.

"Goddammit, Tombstone. Blow that ship now; now!" Garrison yelled across the channel, worry deep in his echoing voice.

"Dammit, Irish. Get out of there! Hannah called down to him wherever he was. "Please don't make us do this." She pleaded.

"Save the Valkyrie, Recker. Hit the switch goddammit!" Irish called back.

This war was full of death and hardship, however, this would probably the hardest decision Recker would make in his entire life.

Finally Hannah changed her stance, "It's him or the Valkyrie; we don't have a choice."

"I agree…" They both were ready to say their goodbyes.

The Valkyrie was now a blazing inferno, a lightning bug in endless darkness and the next shot would finish her, without regret, Recker pulled the trigger.

The destroyer exploded below in a magnificent fireball. Starting from the side and spreading to the bridge until the machine was engulfed in flames and smoke.

Hannah attempted not to cry. Recker was in deep thought. Hannah spoke as the tears began to drop from her eyes, "We did what we had to do, Recker. His life was not in vain."

The two soldiers slide up the rope and they effortlessly climbed up on to the stable bridge as the weight of war fell on their shoulders. They just lost a friend, they killed the rogue Chinese Admiral; the cost was too high though. So many lives for just one man, it was finally over.

A Marine helicopter flew over to them on the bridge and dropped a rope ladder down. Allowing Hannah to climb first, Recker gave one, last sad look back toward the destroyer wreckage below. He turned back around and climbed the ladder saying his final goodbyes.

"Fortress, this is Bloodhound. Tombstone is onboard, we're bringing them back." The copilot talked on the radio, Recker barely noticed as he and Hannah looked down at the water below.

"Are all accounted for?"

On the Valkyrie, Marines and Navy responders attempted to put out the violent flames caused by Recker's hesitation.

"One of them is MIA, sir. Nothing we can do, we have to pull out immediately." The co-pilot stated.

"Shit. Understood… Now, get my marines back home." Garrison stated then ended the transmission.

Recker drifted into unconsciousness.

A voice echoed in his head, "Recker… Recker, hey Recker, wake up… Wake up!"

Recker's throbbing head rose to full height, instead of the familiar metal ceiling, he found empty air.

He was in a white-walled room, a somewhat decently designed fan twirled on the ceiling and his wooden bed made a slight creaking sound as he up righted his entire body. A whisper of a television outside somewhere came through the open bedroom door.

It had been six months since the incident; he had a hard time sleeping in the night with nightmares giving him hell.

Next to him was Hannah, staring at him with her brown eyes and a curious and caring look on her face.

Instead of her familiar grey and sturdy combat harness and uniform provided by the United States Marines, she was dressed like an average American. She wore hugging, light blue skinny jeans and Nike athletic sneakers. She had a plain T-shirt, white in color and a Northface-brand fleece jacket with a maroon coloring. Her clothes choice made her appear like an average citizen.

She could easily blend into any American populous without trouble, a scary thought given that Recker was her enemy, which however was far from the truth.

"Hey, how you feeling? You looked pretty bad there; bad dream again?" She asked with a hint of genuine interest.

"Yeah, it's nothing."

Climbing up and off the bed, Recker pulled on his shoes on the foot of his bed. He had been sleeping in a jeans and T-shirt for the last hour or so. Pulling on his sneakers, he grabbed his leather jacket and American Military cap off the bed banister. Hannah walked out of the door without another word. Recker followed shortly after.

Exiting the bedroom, he entered a somewhat larger room this one was adjourned with smoothly paved bricks and a fireplace in the center of the westward wall and a small kitchen was noticeable toward the back. Out the large windows, Recker could see the Manhattan skyline, a beautiful and awe-inspiring fence of towering buildings and skyscrapers. Nearby, the Brooklyn Bridge sprouted out of the side of the overhang view.

This was Recker's apartment and home, before the war it had been shared with a wife who left in a series of bitter arguments with his military deployment followed by a divorce. If anything could be blamed for his single status, it was the war. At the moment, he was mostly content with his current life and so far he had been given a year's leave to recover along with the rest of Tombstone. Sitting on the couch was Sergeant Clayton "Pac" Pakowski dressed in a beanie, "I heart New York" T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Next to him, Iris

He sat dressed in navy blue jeans, a leather jacket, and a pair of dress shoes. He seemingly in good health.

The Valkyrie had fished his unconscious body out of the Suez following the destruction of the Chinese warship. He was a lucky grab in the dim light of the night, one Navy soldier spotted him while in RHIB boat searching for survivors. They found him floating in 40 degree waters, face skyward allowing for subconscious breathing and survived with limited head trauma, a concussion, a broken arm, a dislocated rib, multiple bone fractures, internal bleeding, and three broken digits.

After he was pulled out, they airdropped him from Egypt to Israel to get better treatment. From there, he was dropped to the United States. Recker could remember Hannah crying into his shoulder as the three survivors of Tombstone watched them pull his body by stretcher into the E.R. of the Valkyrie.

Due to Irish's injuries, the duty fell upon Recker to contact Dunn's wife on her husband's formerly recent death. The funeral was quick and emotionless, with all the combat no one had time to mourn their fallen commander. Irish's family was more than shocked when they saw him broken at the military hospital weeks later. Now things were catching up, the war was still going on, but things were beginning to settle down.

Chang's more loyal forces had refused to stop their assault on the American West Coast following American defeats on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Midway, Hawaii, Alaskan island chains, and most recently the American West Coast. Currently, the deployment of the US Fourth Fleet to pacify the remains of Chang's forces. America had lost many of its war assets, the Third, Fifth, and Seventh Fleets had been either badly beaten or utterly destroyed by Chinese and Russian forces.

Russian forces had also pushed back into former USSR territory and had been giving the NATO coalition forces a large headache.

North Korea had invaded South Korea and a remnant alliance of US and South Korean forces had slowed them just outside Seoul while the South Korean government had taken haven in nearby Australia. Russia had also the nerve to invade Mongolia making even the Chinese government sweat even more in their flooded position.

The world was in chaos and the recovery was only beginning. For now, all Recker and Tombstone could do was rest and prepare for a return to combat.

Hannah had been given extended service time with American forces as a mediator between the growing military cooperation between American and Chinese militaries in the recent clean-up operations.

Right now as Recker thought, he could see Jin Jie and American President Phillips shaking hands and greeting each other at the Fourth of July celebrations, today was American Independence Day and China's new leader had showed up to represent his country in the peace summit to occur in New York in a few days.

Recker also remembered a few months ago, he had walked the stage in front of a crowd of thousands and received awards and decorations alongside all of Tombstone. Recker had earned the Prisoner of War Award, the Defense Distinguished Service Award, and the Silver Star. Irish went farther and received the Prisoner of War Award, the Defense Distinguished Service Award, and became a recipient of the Medal of Honor for giving his life to save hundreds of thousands by destroying an entire warship and indirectly killing one of the most dangerous men alive at the time. Hannah became a recipient for the Silver Star for her work with American forces and her distinguished position of maintaining the peace through her commitment to Jin Jie. Pac was now on a waiting list for a promotion, he also received the Purple Heart for a hole wound in abdomen after being abandoned at the Chinese Airbase, a Defense Distinguished Service Award and the Silver Star.

Dunn and Kovic had both posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. For the time Recker knew Kovic, which to be far, wasn't much. He could see the man before his death was tired and burned out. Somewhere in his life, before meeting Tombstone, he must have been a cool guy. He was typical, he had seen too much and lost too much, a spook with PTSD; you don't see that every day.

Besides that Recker couldn't say much else about Kovic.

Life was short, you had to live it to your fullest, as Irish would say, "No fucking regrets."

Looking up at the digital clock by the kitchen, the number read 17:54.

"Hey guys, we only got two hours left to get to Molina's!" Recker called.

"Got it, Recker." Pac called as he turned off the television and Irish fooled his example and got his legs off the coffee table. Hannah returned from down the hall.

"Alright, we're already then." She stated as she walked toward the door and entered the airway of the waterfront apartment building.

The sunset was already beginning to dwindle as they drove down the Interstate, they soon came across a decent restaurant near Ground Zero, at least out of sight of the former debris cloud and destruction, and no one wanted to see anything sad on this good and happy evening.

The place was named Kevin's Irish Pub. No idea why Irish was so insistent on eating at this place, all Recker could say, it definitely did not look Irish, or anything like a pub.

They found a table for four and sat down.

Picking up a drink menu; Recker wasn't in the mood to eat. He was here to celebrate American Independence yet he felt the need to celebrate those that fought for that right, yet could not be here now to celebrate it themselves.

Each person ordered a drink, some alcoholic beverage for Pac, Hannah, and Recker. Irish however went with a simple Dr. Pepper, he still didn't want to drink alcohol, ever since he got out of rehab all those years back.

Outside, the sky had finally got dark as the stars and shadows of light puffy clouds got dark and nonexistent.

Time flew by fast as the television up by the bar played the White House event as the President, Jin Jie, and several other notable world leaders awaited the fireworks. Russia's president was notably not there, however Britain, Israel, South Korea, and Canada's' leaders sat at a white table. The President was now making a speech, one that involuntarily forced Recker to drown out all other noise.

"Today, my fellow Americans, we celebrate our 244th anniversary of our nation's birth and declaration of independence. While our brothers and sisters have spilled their bloods on fronts and fields far from home fighting for our freedom, we celebrate our rights as Americans to live in peace and prosperity. Our brave men and women of our armed forces have given their lives in places that's names will go down in infamy for years to come, places named, Shanghai, Singapore, Tashgar, Suez Canal, Kashmir Pass, Seoul, Tokyo, Hawaii, Alaska, San Diego, Los Angeles, Hainan, the Paracel Islands, Okinawa, Golmud-Lhasa Railway, Xiaowan Dam, the Kunlun Mountains, Himalayas, the Altai Range, Guilin Peaks, the Gobi Desert, Gulf of Oman, Paris, the Caspian Border, and many more little-known locations on this Earth. We give our humbled thanks to those brave souls that went into the darkness and never returned. I would like to thank the South Korean President, the British Prime Minister, the President of Israel, the Canadian Prime Minister, and Chinese President for joining us. For today is not only a day of appreciation and patriotism, it is a day for us to look toward an everlasting peace, prosperity, and the goal of a brighter future. Speaking of brighter, today we celebrate our independence for us and everyone across the globe."

Across the screen, fireworks flashed as the camera panned and swiftly switched to a helicopter cam of the Washington D.C. fireworks show.

Recker could also hear fireworks going off outside the restaurant. Turning back to face the group, Recker listened passively to the banter between Irish and Hannah, a scene Pac also was incline to watch.

"He used to love going into the mountains, such peace. Simplicity." Hannah said quietly describing her dead uncle.

"Yeah, I had an uncle." Irish replied. "Uncle J… he taught everything there was to know about the back country…"

"I thought you were a city boy." Hannah stated.

"My uncle; he was from the city. He got up and left the city when he was young… wouldn't come home."

"Where's he now?"

"Not with us…"

"I'm sorry."

"Well, you know, what can you do? Got to keep moving forward, make the most with the time you got." Irish talked quietly.

"We lose many people we love." Hannah whispered as she took a sip of her drink.

"Too many, too soon."

"Sometimes I think it's just better to avoid it all. It be easier you know."

"Ah, you can't say that! Keep losing it, you can't regret it. No regrets! Go ahead, say it. No regrets!"

"No regrets…" Hannah said, Recker echoed the words, rolling it through his throat along his tongue.

"Yeah, that's fucking it. Yeah, that's it. No fucking regrets."

Hannah chuckled, the alcohol seeping in a little bit. "No regrets, no fucking regrets!"

"There you go."

"Hey, it's been so long since we were out there in the field, where do you think they'll send us next?" Pac asked.

"I don't know, probably the West Coast." Recker offered.

"No, how 'bout Korea, we could go kick some North Korean ass!" Irish yelled.

"We'll see." Hannah said.

"Well, whatever happens, I guess, no regrets?" Pac said.

"Yeah, no fucking regrets." Hannah said laughing to herself.

"I'll second that." Recker said holding up his beverage.

"Alright… cheers… to Dunn, Kovic, Dima, and all the others." Irish said.

"No fucking regrets." The four cheered loudly echoing through the room. Their drinks clanged together and they all took a sip.

Recker made out a group of teenagers nearby at another table giving them weird looks. As soon as they saw Recker looking, they all looked away attempting to look away.

Recker muttered, "Kids…"

The night was young as the four friends drank to the sounds of distant freedom and the battle drum of war.

**…**

"_People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."_ – George Orwell, English novelist, journalist, and critic: 1903-1950


End file.
